very fortunate that that storied chair collapsed at just the right moment. yes. we caught a break there. skip: d-balls, you're back! d.b.: cool hat, man. becca: okay, let's do this. photo op of me and d.b. and the family on the white house lawn. you sure? i'm not sure about anything, but that's okay. all right then. why don't you all just scoot in? man: becca! becca, can we get a photo?! becca, guy with the face! photo, photo, photo op, bec! (cameras clicking) skip: thrill. awesome. now what hashtag should i use? 'cause this is kind of a delicate situation. is "baby daddy" one word or two words?

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she's the youngest actress ever nominated for an oscar, and tonight ann curry discovers her real-life story is every bit as fascinating as the stunning performance this small actress delivers on the big screen. >> i was nice in the film. that's my mom and i was kind of strong in the film. that's my dad. >> they give you that look. what the look? is that from your mom or your dad? >> both. >> both. >> also one doctor's provocative theory that the smartphone just might bemedicine, and he explains why to fellow physician nancy snyderman. >> are we close to using this saying i'm going to diagnose you. >> you can do blood tests,

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saliva tests, urine tests through your phone. this is a powerful device. plus he's the man at the center of attention today because of his announcement that women can now serve in combat. tonight his story as told to ted koppel. but wait, there's more. the man who talks us into buying stuff, the man who tells us to set it and -- >> forget it! >> tonight at home with ron popeil, the master tv pitchman who is still going and actually never stops. >> you're not going to spend $400 or $350 or $320 or $290 like you may be thinking. not $280 or $250 or $260 -- >> that and more as "rock center" gets under way. good evening and welcome to "rock center." we begin tonight with the youngest actress ever nominated for an academy award, and win or lose, maybe the nicest thing about her nomination will be that more people will seek out the movies she's in.

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it's called "beasts of the southern wild" and it's part fable, part clear-eyed view of nature and nurture, love and death, poverty, family, the environment. it's her first film performance. it's a small movie, make no mistake, compared to a 007 or a "lincoln," but it leaves a big mark on you. as ann curry reports tonight, the only thing more compelling than her work on screen is her story in real life. >> okay. >> all right. so this is how you do it. >> reporter: you probably don't recognize quvenzhane wallis. over a platter of crawfish, she's pure louisiana. >> you put it right there and then you suck the head. >> reporter: you are looking at the youngest person ever nominated for an academy award as best actress. and she is 9. >> how many do you really eat? >> about five pounds. i can eat about five pounds. >> really? >> reporter: quvenzhane was 6 when she played the role of hush

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puppy, the lead in the critically acclaimed film "beasts of the southern wild." >> in a million years when kids go to school, they'll know once there was a hush puppy and she lived with her daddy. >> reporter: she was only 5 and just beginning to read when she was selected out of 3500 children who tried out. >> you have to learn how to feed yourself. >> reporter: the movie is about the bond between father and daughter. >> okay, this is your punching hand. ball your fists up in case you have to whack them when they come out. >> reporter: hush puppy is growing up in a bayou at the end of the earth they call the bathtub. her father is dying and he is hell-bent on teaching hush puppy how to survive on her own. >> got it, got it! yeah! look what we got! look what we got! gotcha! we got it, say i gotcha. >> i gotcha! >> yeah! >> reporter: quvenzhane, the daughter of a truck driver and schoolteacher is the youngest of four.

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>> we want to go get some buttermilk drops. >> reporter: and she can credit some of hur her success to the man inside the buttermilk bakery. dwight henry is the man who plays her father. she calls him mr. henry and he is an equally unlikely co-star. a baker in new orleans for 30 years, like her he had never been in a movie before. but before he got the part, she had to approve working with him. >> quvenzhane, how did you know when you first met mr. henry that he could be the man who plays your father? >> he brought me sweets. >> he brought you sweets? from his bakery? >> mm-hmm. >> when i walked in the room they say there she go right there. i put that big smile on my face, i had all them bags in my hand. i hand them to her. she puts that big ole smile on my face and i knew i had the part then. >> what is that look? i see you two give that look a lot to each other. is that your own language? >> yes.

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and signs. >> see, we do that, we don't even have to say a word. we know what that means. >> which means to be strong. >> strong, yes. >> look how strong i am. >> reporter: dwight henry has a daughter about the same age as quvenzhane, and he treated her as his own. >> that was fun. do it again. >> your character wink is facing incredible hardships, and he needs to help his daughter, hush puppy, toughen up. >> come on! come on! let me have it! ahh! you the man. who the man? >> i'm the man. >> who the man? >> i'm the man! >> you get very tough. >> you have to understand, she's the most important person in the world to me. she doesn't have her mother. i'm all she has, and she's living in a region that's so dangerous. i know i'm dying.

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and in real life, if her father is dying, he's going to do everything in his power to make sure our children are okay when we are not here. >> she understands that he's saying that he's dying and everything is not going to happen the way you want it, it's just going to have to go the way the world wants it. >> reporter: that reality hits home when hush puppy faces saying goodbye to her dying father. >> when he dies, you're dying with him because you're always with him and you're never going to leave him. >> and when you watch that scene together, do you think you did okay? >> i do. i don't know about him. >> you know, these emotions that we had in some of these scenes, they wasn't things that we put in our eyes and things like that. we were just thinking about things, people we lost, and that brought up some real heart-felt emotions that we felt.

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you know, that was real tears. >> don't cry, you hear? >> no crying. >> i was thinking about the time when i lost my father and she was thinking about someone that she lost that was dear to her at the same time. >> the cameraman was crying. that's why you saw like the scene kind of shaking a little bit. the director was crying. he was just like this, rubbing all the tears. and like it was all of us just crying. >> reporter: how did someone so young turn in such a performance? we talked at a nearby library. >> do you know where you get your strength? >> my dad. because he's physically strong or you mean he's emotionally strong? >> both. he's always, like, you better do that. and then like he's -- he sometimes is kind of like -- >> so you're saying that hush puppy -- playing hush puppy, you were influenced by your father?

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>> pretty much. my father and my fake father are kind of like the same. >> so you're saying mr. henry was very similar to your real father. >> pretty much. >> and that made you more comfortable? >> yes. >> it sounds like you were thinking about your dad and how strong he was. >> and my mom, because they put them together and it's kind of like made the hush puppy because i was nice in the film and that's my mom. and i was kind of strong in the film, and that's my dad. >> hush puppy -- >> is -- >> both. and you're kind of both. so what does your mom and dad tell you about not letting all that attention change who you are? are they tough about that? >> they say don't -- don't think about it. don't -- and they just tell me not to, and just do what you're supposed to do. just don't worry about other people, just worry about yourself and what you're supposed to do. >> you're saying that they are

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very firm parents? they give you that look? what's the look? is that from your mom or your dad? >> both. >> how do you imagine going to the academy awards will be like? is it your time to shine? >> my time. >> you'll be shining too, mr. henry. >> of course he will. >> it's a long way from being a baker to sitting at the academy awards. >> yeah. sitting with my little hush puppy. >> daddy. >> she is going to win, no doubt about it. >> our thanks to ann curry, mr. henry and hush puppy. find a way to see this movie. up next as we continue tonight, ted koppel on the man who played a big role today on changing the military for women in this country forever. and what he feels is our greatest threat as a nation today. and later on, the doctor who says this device may be the whole ball game and may change medicine forever.

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they made history today at the pentagon when two men sat down press corps and announced a policy change that will change while this has been happening by itself and over the course of the last decade in our two wars, this officially opens up a ton of jobs and new pathways to leadership for women. about those two men, one of those was the outgoing defense secretary leon panetta. the other was a decorated veteran, bronze star recipient, four-star army general, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. he is general martin dempsey, and days before the big announcement at the pentagon, ted koppel sat down with him for our broadcast tonight. >> we all wear the same uniform and we all fire the same weapons. most importantly, we all take the same oath. >> reporter: and with that the chairman of the joint chiefs and the outgoing secretary of defense signed an order

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rescinding a 1994 rule that bars women from direct ground combat. tonight we're going to tell you a little about this low-key, low-profile four-star general. today he made history. but when the occasion calls for it, he's not above poking a little fun at himself. >> you will pick up the chorus and i will point to you and you, you better deliver, because i'm the chairman. >> reporter: they used to call sinatra chairman of the board. ♪ you're my kind of team >> this guy is know sinatra, but he is chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. right there at the front of the war novel "billy lynn's long halftime walk" and it is a terrific book, a plug from the chairman of the joint chiefs. worth reading, general william dempsey. except his name is martin

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dempsey, not william. and until i brought it to the publisher's attention, no one had noticed. that probably wouldn't have happened to omar bradley or colin powell. but general dempsey is little known outside the military. married, one son, two daughters, all of whom have served in the army, general martin dempsey is the highest ranking officer in the armed forces and principal military adviser to the president. >> this is a card. >> reporter: on his desk at the pentagon is a small wooden box with what looks like a collection of baseball cards. >> and so i'll just pull a handful out of this box and cycle them into my money clip. >> reporter: these are young soldiers who died while general dempsey was demacommanding u.s. forces in baghdad. >> but from time to time if i forget why we're doing what we do, then i just reach in. some people don't even know i'm doing it.

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i just reach in my pocket and make sure i've still got my cards. >> which part of the world do you worry about the most right now? >> you know there's kind of a near term, long term -- >> near term. >> -- aspect to that. i think near term it continues to be the threat of global terrorism. you know, we track a global terrorist network that is not uniquely al qaeda, but is affiliated at some level with al qaeda. what we've had to do in response is we have become a network. to defeat a network, we've had to become a network. >> what does that mean? >> what it means is you're not going to see these broad sweeping movements across the desert of eastern iraq in a hail mary, you know, right-hand cross, whatever it was called in 1991. you're going to see smaller groups of military formations confronting these distributed enemy across a much wider scope. >> that's a major change.

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no more massive troop deployments, lots of small covert insertions. think joint special operations, rangers, green berets, s.e.a.l.s. think paramilitary cia operatives and civilian contractors with military backgrounds. think unarmed surveillance drones and their killer cousin, the predator with its missiles. above all, think of doing more with less visibility and dispersed over a far wider battlefield. on numerous occasions in the past and again in his inaugural address, the president chose a different emphasis. >> this generation of americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. a decade of war is now ending. >> you're telling me we're not going to be done? >> well, i tell you what -- the language that i've actually

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taken to heart, which is by the end of 2014, our war in afghanistan will be complete, but no one has ever suggested that that will end the war. >> is it a mistake to give the american public the sense that afghanistan is essentially over? we can stop worrying about afghanistan? >> i think it would be a mistake to give the american people the sense that al qaeda is defeated. wherever we happen to find them. and i think that it's fair to say that there will be a part of the al qaeda threat emanating from both western pakistan and potentially afghanistan for the foreseeable future. >> we have capabilities today that make us sort of comfortable with the use of drones, but imagine if some other entity had the capability of using drones against the united states. are we prepared for that? >> well, i think -- >> as a nation, i mean. >> yeah, i think we are prepared for that.

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i think it's maybe an inevitability. >> there's another kind of warfare already being waged. remember what hurricane sandy did to the power grid in lower manhattan? a cyber attack would be even more devastating. >> there have been instances of our using cyber warfare, i'm going to say our using it, the united states, israel, against iran. there are also examples of the iranians using it against us. >> there are reports that destructive cyber tools have been used against iran. i'm not either confirming or denying any part in that. but what it should tell you is that capability exists. and if it exists, it doesn't -- you know, whoever is using those, can't assume that they're the only smart people in the world. >> so if we, hypothetically speaking, are using it against the iranians, we have to assume

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the iranians would use it against us? >> that's a valid assumption. let me confirm that there is disruption -- this was a phrase that may not be common knowledge, but disruptive denial of services, where you overwhelm a website in order to impede people who would normally use it from using it. it is literally disruption. that happens. >> what happens when that occurs? >> well, literally it shuts the network down. >> what kind of networks have been shut down? >> there have been financial networks shut down, there have been industry networks shut down. >> if i were to say to you that the assumption is that both the chinese and the iranians are engaged in that kind of behavior, can you confirm that? >> i would answer that the assumption is that both nation states, which is to say governments, and individuals and groups, organizations, are engaged in trying to take advantage of vulnerabilities in cyber.

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that's what makes cyber so worrisome. >> what is it you worry about? >> well, what i worry about is that that same capability could be used to implant a destructive device that could cause significant harm to the industrial base, whether it's critical infrastructure or the financial network. >> reporter: all of which makes the recent press frenzy over david petraeus and marital i didn't -- infidelity seem like less of an issue. to my surprise, general dempsey didn't dismiss it that easily. >> what is it the commander would not have known before haenld or any man or woman serving under you would not have known beforehand from this situation. >> we had a conversation about competence and character. i think over the last ten years when you're at war, you tend to value competence above all else. naturally, the nation's well-being is hanging in the

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balance. so the first lesson i think would be not that we've neglected the character side of this equation, but we probably are at a point where we ought to reemphasize it. maybe we can't see character from the top down. maybe you can see part of it. maybe we need the impression, maybe we need the view of those that are looking from the bottom up. i'm actually more interested in what are the colonels, lieutenant colonels saying about the colonels? what are the colonels saying about the brigadiers? competence will always be the most important thing. you can't have a man of -- or woman of incredible character who can't deliver on the battlefield because at the end of the day that's what we're accountable for. but character counts, and it counts mightily. >> fascinating look at that character in the pentagon. our thanks to ted koppel for joining us with that tonight. and next, another guy at the top of his profession, though a very different guy, very different profession. he is ron popeil.

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he can sell anything nonstop up to and including himself. >> the glh hairspray. i have a nice-sized bald spot on the back of my head here. as you can see -- >> it disappears with the glh hairspray. >> great-looking hair. ♪ nice sweater. thank you. ♪ he opened up jake's very private world. at first, jake's family thought they saved ziggy, but his connection with jake has been a lifesaver.

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welcome back. that is in fact a turkey behind

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me but it's there for a good reason. if there is a shoulder harness nearby, you might want to fasten it around you. we're about to enter the wild world of ron popeil because after all he entered our national consciousness long ago. >> let me show you how to do it. just put it on that needle. you tap it, you shake it. you shake it and just go straight down like that. but wait, there's more. >> you'll have the most delicious vegetables. >> he is the best-known salesman of the television era, maybe the best salesman of the modern era, period. if you watch any television at all, you've seen him and his products. the television we watch today has been changed by him, especially when the hour grows late and thoughts turn to the things we don't need. >> you know you're not going to spend $400 for it, not $375 or $350. >> ron popeil has sold us things

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that chop and slice and dice and turn and spray. >> not $275 or $250. >> he has sold products that cook, products that suck, products that put dinner on the table. >> not $225 or even $200, like you all may be thinking. >> and along the way, in his own way, he has added expressions to our language. >> set it and -- >> forget it! >> for just four easy payments and it makes a great dip. but wait, there's more. >> he long ago became a juicy target for parity. >> drop the bass. that's the whole bass into the super bass-o-matic 76. >> he has made a living and a good one selling that fine line between the truly cheesy and the general generally savory. so this is the story of ron popeil of beverly hills. >> i feel like i know your kitchen already. >> first some stats. he is 77 years old.

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he is married to his fourth wife. he has five daughters, the youngest is 11. over the years his products sold under his own name or the ronco label have brought in an estimated $2 billion. a huge chunk of that money came from his most successful big ticket product, the show time rotisserie oven. he sold over eight million of these and they work. they're simple. they cook a chicken superbly well, and they crossed an important socioeconomic line for ron popeil. after spending most of his life, let's face it, aiming at a down market demographic, his rotisserie is in the homes of rich folks and poor folks and all the folks in between. >> i'll take the turkey -- >> which brings us to the next thing. with ron popeil, there's always a next thing. >> we'll lock this down, lock that down. you go up, out and down.

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you can't be splashed because when the food hits the oil, the lid is in place. >> here it is in his kitchen where he shoots a lot of his commercials himself. he has spent 11 years trying to perfect an olive oil fryer that won't burn the cook or burn down the house. and among other things it cooks a 15-pound turkey in 45 minutes. he says the product is ready to hand to a manufacturer. to prove it, he cooked a lot of turkeys while we were there. >> you could work in a deli. that's a portable skill. >> the infomercial is already made, complete with a studio audience of true believers, including one you may not believe. in case you've forgotten already what type of oil goes in his new fryer -- >> olive oil. >> olive oil is also his thing. it's everywhere in the popeil house. he's the guinness world record holder for the largest collection. not far away in a spare room in

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the house is a piled-up monument to his obsession. all the failed attempts at his turkey fryer. >> ron, this is beverly hills. you can't have a mess like this. >> we have some other big ones back there. >> i thought that was a hot tub when i first saw it. >> in the dining room displayed for our visit, many but not all of the ronco products we've been pitched on tv over the years. even though he sold ronco years ago, it's his name people still respond to, and he is always selling in his own selfless way. >> the glh hairspray. you notice i have a nice-sized bald spot on the back of my head here. >> uh-huh. >> as you can see -- >> it disappears with the glh hairspray. >> great-looking hair. >> he can sell anything, this table full of stuff proves that, and it's made him a rich man. >> here. try one of those. >> thank you. >> interestingly, he insists he wouldn't sell just anything. >> i can sell stuff that i create and i know is meaningful and worthwhile to the customer.

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i can't sell empty boxes, though. only undertakers sell empty boxes and get away with it. i have to have something that i believe in, that i'm passionate about, that when you take that product home, you're going to say this really does the job. and it makes a great gift. >> selling is in his blood. it was all he was left with after a cold-blooded childhood. he was the son of a boardwalk vendor in asbury park, new jersey. it's his dad who's the inventor of the pocket fisherman, the chop-o-matic and other products, but then his parents gave him over to his grandparents, placing ron in an abusive relationship. his skill led him out on the road, carnival its, state fairs, anywhere he could set up a table and ask the crowd, now how much would you expect to pay for a product of this high quality? he's still doing that. he remembers being hungry as a young kid. he's been successful in business by staying hungry. there have been fits and starts.

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he's sold some turkeys over the years and went bankrupt along the way. but it's when he discovered the way to sell to a larger audience that everything changed for ron popeil. >> ladies and gentlemen, i'm going to show you the greatest kitchen appliance ever made. it's called chop-o-matic. >> what i love about your history is we've got two television cameras facing us here. you went from state fairs to realizing this new invention was your way right through to the customer and that's what made you i think the salesman of our time. >> if there was no tv, i'd still be standing on some coca-cola boxes at the state or county fair and screaming my lungs out. >> at heart he's an inventor, driven, never satisfied, always scheming, always selling. in the only moment that bordered on poignant, he watched his own infomercial in his own kitchen, pointing out things he could do better, pointing out the food he meticulously dressed up for its close-up.

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out back casting with the popeil pocket fisherman across an empty swimming pool overlooking los angeles, he got reflective for a brief moment when he wasn't pitching a product. >> i guess i just needed to hear you say it's been a good american life. >> it has been a good -- it's been -- >> and you really are one of the great names. >> it can only happen in america. i'm indebted, i'm indebted to the country for allowing me to do what i've been able to do. >> another thing i was going to ask you. would ron popeil's story have been possible anywhere else? >> i don't think so. i don't think so. >> but because this is the story of ron popeil, it can't be allowed to end then and there, so it's back into the kitchen for one more pitch as perfected by ron popeil. >> you're not going to spend $400 or $350 or $320 or $300 or $290 like you may be thinking.

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not $280 or $250 or $260 and not even $200. and not $190 or $180. all you spend for this fabulous new fryer of mine is just four easy monthly payments of only, you'll have to watch the infomercial to find that out. >> oh, man! i knew the payments were going to be easy. can i have some turkey? >> please do. >> that is good turkey. that's a good bird. before there was television in the old days at the county fairs, ron popeil used to draw a crowd by throwing free ball point pens and pocket combs into the air. once he had a crowd, his problem was drawing blood, his own. he did a lot of knife demonstrations live, and he cut himself so often he used to keep a fresh beet nearby on the

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table, he'd quickly slice the beet hoping he's mask his own blood. nobody ever said selling knives was easy. we'll take a break. up next it sounds like science fiction, but dr. nancy snyderman will report on how your smartphone may change medicine, including warning you of a heart attack. sauce. that pork chop was great. no more fast food friday's. we're going to go to red lobster... [ male announcer ] come try our new menu and sea food differently. and introducing 7 lunch choices for just $7.99! salad, sandwiches and more. [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good. it's amazing what soup can do.

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welcome back. in our next story here tonight, we're about to hear one of the smartphone may change his profession and personal medical his story tonight from dr. nancy snyderman. >> why do we have people being treated like cattle herds? that's waste. and the billions of dollars that's being wasted each year for screening and the wrong drugs and the wrong everything. it's astounding, and we just can't go on like this. >> i'll take that, thanks. >> reporter: dr. eric topol has long been one of the world's foremost cardiologists. he has now become the foremost expert in the exploding field of wireless medicine. and this explosion, he says, is about to make our health care better and cheaper.

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watch what he does with his cell phone. >> we'll just pop this is phone into it like that. >> reporter: he shows how simply his modified iphone produces a cardiogram for a patient. >> so you just put your fingers on it. there you go. and in a second -- you know, in the first or second it stabilizes. >> reporter: the device was approved by the fda in december and is now sold to physicians for $199. topol tells his patient he just saved a $100 technician's fee. >> so are we close to using this to say i'm going to diagnose you and prescribe four or five apps instead of four or five medications? >> well, these days i'm actually prescribing a lot more apps than i am medications. you can take the phone and make it a lab on a chip. you can do blood tests, saliva tests, urine tests, all kinds of things. sweat tests through your phone. this is a powerful device.

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>> and we'll just have you hold that on there like that. >> reporter: topol's patient, ron thompson, is dealing with several significant heart issues. >> you saw that on a phone. didn't you just -- weren't you just amazed the first time you saw that? >> absolutely. it's like having an ecg machine hooked up to me and shaving my chest and sticking, you know, stick 'em on there and putting electrodes or whatever, but yeah, no, this is incredible. >> reporter: topol also uses a portable ultrasound, a v-scan to image ron's heart. >> so get a window. there's the aorta. you see -- >> i sure do. >> reporter: the v-scan is made by ge, a parent company of nbc. >> can you see that? see how strong that is coming together? >> reporter: he does in the office what would normally be a separate test costing $800. >> there's 20 million, over 20 million echocardiograms done a year. so 20 million times $800, that's

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a lot of money. probably 70, 80% we can get rid of just by having this as part of the physical exam. >> i was surprised when you saw ron that the technology did not get in the way of the doctor/patient relationship. >> actually i think it helps make the whole interaction much more intimate, because now i'm sharing the results in realtime. there's so much technology now that we could -- by using digital structure that exists today, that we could make the office visit an enjoyable thing. not only that, nancy, but it doesn't have to be in person. there's no reason why a lot of office visits, if not most, could be done remotely. >> ron could take his ekg at home, send -- >> yes. we'd be looking at it together. or if i got him a wireless ultrasound and he just puts it right there and i say, okay, take a deep breath, i could be watching it in realtime. anything that we can do can be done remotely.

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>> reporter: when topol came to scripps in san diego from cleveland, he started a new chapter in his life. >> when you moved here in 2006, you had just left the cleveland clinic under not very happy circumstances. >> right. >> reporter: he had a rep contusion for brashness. he questioned the safety of the hugely profitable pain killer vioxx and eventually forced it off the market. >> i resigned after having been there 14 years. it was a significant part of my career. >> do you think, wow, i've done a really great job making health care better or do you think, damn, there's so much yet to do? >> i feel the damn, there's so much to do problem. i feel that big-time. >> do you ever think about how you're going to die? >> yeah, i do sometimes. you know, i watched my mother die at a very young age, in her early 50s, with leukemia. my father was an end-stage diabetic. he went blind at age 49. >> reporter: topol uses dna

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testing and monitoring to guide his daily life. he refuses to use elevators and his day is spent walking from building to building. he incorporates an hour of exercise into virtually every day, no matter how busy. trying to live the life he thinks we'll all be living in the near future. >> how did you find out about that? >> reporter: at lunch we pulled out what we were told is one of his weaknesses, tortilla chips. >> will you partake? >> oh, yeah, it's hard to resist. >> okay, come on. handful. >> reporter: they are loaded with carbohydrates, which trigger glucose. >> yeah, this is my guilty pleasure here. >> reporter: so out comes his cell phone. >> i can look at my glucose every minute. i don't want to look at it every minute, but i can. so i can just turn it on, my glucose. fortunately i haven't had enough chips yet. it's 107. >> how does it know that? >> i have a sensor on. >> where? >> i have it on my abdomen, but i'll show you what it looks like. it's like that. touching the skin.

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>> so that sends a wireless signal to this? >> yes. >> and if you were a diabetic and you had this, you could then send this message to your physician or to your computer. >> oh, yeah. >> and you could start to see triggers and trends and follow this? >> sure, oh, yeah. >> and there goes the lifestyle change? >> you got it. >> reporter: eric topol is a man who looks way over the horizon, and everywhere he looks, he sees a cell phone. >> in the future, let's assume i have heart disease, what could this tell me about impending trouble? >> well, we're working on a project that will take a nanosensor in the bloodstream that is smaller than a grain of sand and it will -- it will pick up a signal when you have cells that are coming off, shed into the bloodstream, coming off from the artery lining, which is a precursor to a heart attack. and then you will get on your phone a special heart attack ring tone, which will warn you within the week or two weeks that you are very liable to have

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a heart attack. i know it sounds a little invasive putting this little tiny, smaller than a grain of sand in your blood, but what that will do of having your body under continuous surveillance, talking to your phone, that's the future of medicine. so this is the heart rate. >> reporter: this is his newest passion, the busy mobile wrist monitor. topol was involved in its development. everything a hospital intensive care unit now monitors, this does wirelessly. >> so if my 90-year-old father is discharged from the hospital, it's conceivable he could go home with something like this and a doctor could monitor him remotely? >> absolutely. >> reporter: his book lays out how the digital revolution will create better health care. >> you write in your book that medicine is currently set up to be maximally imprecise. >> medicine today is about as much wasteful as one can imagine. so let's just take drugs in this country, prescription drugs. 350 billion a year, a third of

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which is total waste. we're giving a drug that doesn't work, in fact even worse now, we're giving drugs that backfire with side effects. so that's $100 billion plus just from the prescription medications. and what about mass screening? every woman should have a mammogram every year, colonoscopy, psas, it's really medicine dumbed down. it's treating everyone the same. that's crazy. each of us are truly unique in every way. >> what does the patient of tomorrow look like? >> the patient of tomorrow is the biggest switch. people need to take ownership. they need to seize the moment and seize the data. the new medicine is plugged into you. it's understanding you, which we've never really done before, and you drive it. you've got the data and you've got information that you never had before. wouldn't you like that information? most people would. and wouldn't you like to be helping to call the shots? >> fascinating story.

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our thanks to doctors topol and snyderman for that. up next here tonight, it's been a blazingly busy few days in terms of news, including the inauguration. tonight some of what our cameras saw that day of prominent people behaving like themselves. is one, two, three times stronger than the leading value brand. well done, angels! stronger, holds up better... all wrapped up in a value you love. new angel soft®. now stronger than ever.

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that music means the shank of the evening. we've reached the moment when we look back over these past few days at what went past. this week that includes the tough-to-answer question is there such a thing as standing too close to a passing aircraft? more on that in just a moment. first, a look back at the pageantry we witnessed this week in washington. it was just three days ago, after all, and there was so much to see, it turns out we didn't get to see it all. to review the inauguration, perhaps because it wasn't the peaceful transfer of power as

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much as it was a continuation of the obama years and because we all get the seriousness of it, how about what else our cameras picked up along the way. like the hat choice of justice briar and justice scalia. sasha got caught yawning the way any kid would. there was the former president. there was the heart stopper for that brief moment when we thought the oath was going bad again. >> the office of president of the united states. >> and will -- >> overall the beautiful obama girls seemed to have a great outing, including some great moves on the inaugural stand, and big sister photo bombing her dad. the now famous first lady eye roll was apparently because the speaker was joking with the president over quitting smoking, at least according to a lip reading expert, though the speaker's office says that's not the case. and speaking of which, a lot of people noticed the president going to town on the gum at the end of the day, widely speculated to be nicorette.

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there was the host with the most, senator chuck schumer, and the beyonce moment. ♪ o say does that star-spangled banner ♪ >> okay, so it wasn't that bad, but it sure became a big story. it was the year of the electronic device. sasha, malia and their dad all on theirs. everyone else fired up theirs when the first couple had their first dance that night. ♪ o beautiful >> after playing for a crowd of a million people and a billion viewers worldwide, james taylor joined us live in our studio. if you've ever wondered what happens when the anchor steps out during a commercial break, here you go. the other anchors surround him for a photo while the always classy brokaw pretends to be above it. and just when it seems like the pace of news these days is brisk, consider a four-day period 40 years ago this week. first nixon was inaugurated to

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his second term. then just two days later, president johnson died on his ranch in texas and the supreme court decided roe versus wade. the very next day, the peace accords were announced, ending the vietnam war. fast forward to present day news from the world of science. a new study says women look their oldest on wednesdays at 3:30 in the afternoon. sometimes dramatically so. one reason, it's midweek so wednesday is the day likely to be the most stressful because it's still three days to go until the weekend when we can cut loose. ♪ and okay, so this may not be science. the study was sponsored by the sun tan lotion people at saint tropez to promote their new anti-aging cream. web videos this week were capped off by this. check out this guy. watch the sky and there's a biplane. it almost takes out the woman doing the video with that slight tip of the wing at the last moment. but as all of us aviation geeks

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know, very close fly-byes are a whole new web subgenre of their own, including this, the granddaddy of them all. just wait and watch for a french mirage jet and check out the cool guy just standing there. >> maybe my favorite piece of video for all time. that's going to do it for our broadcast tonight. thank you for being here with us. we're off next week and it's not too soon to let you know beginning february 8th we move to fridays at 10:00, 9:00 central. if you know us by now, you know we don't like to get too